Pamela Breitberg

hardest working people

Watching a Garrison Keiler documentary movie where a Norwegian woman just said that Norwegians are the hardest working people, meaning they don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and doing labor because that is part of who they are. I grew up hearing about the “scrubby Dutch and German” as my mother would proudly share this trait of our German heritage. I have found this genetic trait also proudly claimed by the families of the 99 percent latino population at my school. This connects to my earlier post about the hard-working insects and birds out my living window. In that post I admitted that my work is minor compared to these creatures whose work never ceases, or so it seems. I can’t help but wonder how many other groups of people consider themselves the hardest working of our species. Feel free to share your insights.